I promised a while back that I would write a piece on the raccoon dog or tanuki, and now seems as good a time as any. This time I want to look at some of the folklore and tales surrounding the raccoon dog.

A “fuuri” tanuki by Hokusai.

The raccoon dog is known as a trickster (even when not depicted as a shape-shifter), but whose character ranges from lovable prankster to malicious killer. Let us examine some folk tales that display these.

Bunbukuchagama tells of a raccoon dog that transforms itself into a tea kettle (some versions say as repayment for the poor man who freed it from a trap). Unable to stand the heat of the fire and now incapable of properly transforming back into its true self, it helps the poor man make a living by performing – tightrope walking is the most frequently depicted performance. When the raccoon dog dies, it is preserved as a kettle. The Morinji Temple in Tatebayashi, Gunma has a version in which the raccoon dog transforms himself into a priest with a never-emptying tea kettle. The temple is said to still possess this kettle.

Interestingly, there is a similar tale from Yamagata which is woven around a fox instead of a raccoon dog.

An illustration of Morinji Bumbuku Chagama by Sekien

Shojoji Tanuki Bayashi tells of a group of raccoon dogs who scare away priests from the nearby temple by transforming themselves into various spectres (notably the hitomekozo and rokurokukubi).

One day a new priest, Wako, arrives. He is not at all scared by the apparitions and stays. The raccoon dogs try to drive him away with noise instead and hold parties at night. Wako sneaks up to see what the raccoon dogs are up to and, deciding that they are having fun, starts playing his shamisen.

Not to be outdone, the raccoon dogs drum harder on their bellies (It needs to be pointed out that in popular folklore, raccoon dogs have large pot-bellies which they pound like drums).

This musical battle continues for four nights. The great leader, determined not to be beaten by a priest, pounds too hard on his stomach, bursting it and killing him. Wako conducts a funeral for the leader.

A more child-friendly version says that the leader doesn’t die, but Wako heals him with a salve.

There is a children’s song dating from the 1920s based on this story.

Tanuki band by Utagawa.

Monument in the Shojoji Temple grounds with lyrics to the children’s song.

Kachi-kachi Yama is a tale of murder and leporine vengeance.

An old childless couple live in the mountains. (The “old, childless couple” is a staple of Japanese fairy tales, much in line with the poor farmer or wood cutter of the Grimms. Since the eldest son – or the husband of the eldest daughter – was the source of social security, being old and childless was the worst state to be in). This couple, however, have a special friend – a hare (often mistranslated as rabbit) – who they treat like a child.

The couple also have an enemy – a racoon dog – who not only openly steals from their garden but taunts them.

One day the old man manages to trap the raccoon dog. He takes it to the old woman and tells her to make tanuki jiru from it.

Now alone with the old woman, the raccoon dog begs for mercy and promises to help her. Being a kind old soul, the woman releases the racoon dog, who snatches up a mill hammer and clubs the woman to death with it.

Exhibit A: the murder weapon. A mortar and pounding mallet.

Some versions of the story then have the villainous raccoon dog cook the body into soup and transform itself into a likeness of the old woman. When the old man comes home, the raccoon dog gives him the soup to eat before revealing his identity (and the old man’s mortal sin) and then running away.

The hare, hearing about what has happened, promises revenge.

He sets several traps of pain for the raccoon dog, which vary with the story. The one common to all versions is tricking the raccoon dog into carrying a bundle of firewood on its back and using a flint to set the pack alight. (The Japanese onomatopoeia for the striking of the flint is kachi-kachi; when the raccoon dog asks the hare about the noise, he replies that it is the sound of “Kachi-Kachi Mountain”, leading to the title of the story)

Other torturous deceptions include treating the burns with a salty miso or hot chilli mix, dropping a hornet nest on his head and the finale of tricking the racoon dog into rowing out into the lake in a boat made of clay. As the boat dissolves, the hare bludgeons the raccoon dog with his oar, completing his revenge.

There is a Mt. Kachi Kachi on Lake Kawaguchi.

The hare setting light to the raccoon dog’s load.

A Tokyo Metro warning about the danger of fires in mountains playing on the Kachi-kachi Yama story. Thanks to The Goat That Wrote for this picture.

Statues of raccoon dogs are frequently found outside bars. In this guise, they are depicted as jolly characters possessing large pot-bellies and huge testicles, and usually carrying a bottle of drink and wearing a sun hat.

A raccoon dog in priest’s clothing photographed in Kawagoe.

The raccoon dog is also the mascot of okonomiyaki restaurant chain Dotonbori.

Raccoon dogs are said to be fond of tempura; and noodles (soba and udon) containing tempura are labelled “tanuki”. (In the same vein, foxes are said to have a similar fondness of fried tofu, and noodles containing this are known as “kitsune”.)

A sly old person (the epithetical “old fox” in English) is often known as a tanuki in Japanese.

Raccoon dogs are a favourite subject of children’s songs, and the lyrics frequently refer to them drumming on their bellies. This is the inspiration behind the title of the Studio Ghibli film Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pompoko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ) – which I recommend seeing as an insight into the plight of these animals and how they are viewed in popular culture.

Finally, I stumbled across a saying in my reading: hitotsuana no mujina (一つ穴の狢) or onajiana no munjina (同じ穴の狢), meaning “villains of the same stripe”. Apparently, the proverb has its origins in the belief that raccoon dogs shared part of a badger’s burrow.

13 Responses to Tanuki Tales

Back again, spotted a pair of tanuki about three weeks ago, they were startled by our headlights, stopped and stared at us while stared back, with our kids bouncing up and down in their seats in fits of sheer delight! Our neighbours spotted a pair in our garden last summer but we didn’t see them ourselves, I did spot one a few years back close by the railway.

Hi again, having done a comparative survey of wolf-dog-fox superstitions (including wolf/fox shapeshifters) – see my article http://japanesemythology.wordpress.com/slavic-mythology-hors-dazbog-solar-deity-and-wolf-deity-or-lame-wolf-shepherdwho-rules-the-underworld/, it would seem that the idea of shapeshifting is a natural progression of wolf (and other animal) totemism, scholars believe wolf superstition and shapeshifter beliefs began – in the proto-Indo-European-Iranian homeland – somewhere between the Caucasus and Northern India – and I agree. As it gets further away from wolf populated lands, the animals that shapeshift progressively get more diverse, including forms from foxes in Iran and Japan/Korea/China to jackals in SEA, and then an array of other animals, most commonly snakes (India, China, all of Asia), bears and birds in circum-Arctic places. Japanese shapeshifting ideas of wolves and foxes are probably of Iranian and/Dravidian-Druze origin (via tribes in China-SEA and Korea that were of Iranian-mixed descent) — these may have included Turkic-Mongolic-Asena tribes that helped formed the royal and elite clans of Korea and Japan (who are said to have been descended bear-women and wolf ancestors). The earliest royal genealogical myths contain shapeshifting tales most commonly involving foxes, snakes, and birds. Tales of smaller animals such as tanuki- transformations either evolved in situ or came in later times from India, SEA. Half-horse half men tales span the Greek-Caucasus (centaurs) to North India(Hayagriva) and the Pamir-Himalayas, arriving in Japan as the Bato-kannon and Hayagriva).

Wow, some amazing research there. Thanks for the links.
I really want to go back to Mt. Mitsumine and get a photo of the wolf skin in the museum there. Someday I’ll get around to doing a post on the (late) Japanese wolf.

In all likelihood shapeshifter legends have a Chinese origin. As I’ve said before, (wild) cats were the central shape-shifters in China, although under the right circumstances almost anything could become a shape-shifter or at least a supernatural creature. Curiously, as Japan became increasingly urbanised, cats began to take a more central role in supernatural legends.

I’m not sure if the Chinese ascribed shape-shifting to the raccoon dog specifically. The character 狸 refered to a cat in ancient China; Japanese scholars applied the character to the raccoon dog because they believed it was a shape-shifter.

Quite likely the original concept is Chinese.
Like I’ve said, the character 狸 originally meant cat [a shapeshifter in China], but came to mean racoon dog in Japan. Foxes were also shapeshifters [and sometimes dieties]